Faulty bullet saved Dr Uday’s life: Experts

Call it sheer good luck, Dr Uday who was shot at by his business partner on February 8 had escaped with minor injuries, all thanks to the defective bullet

Hyderabad: Did really a faulty bullet save Laurel Hospitals Managing Director Dr Uday Kumar’s life? May be yes, opines technical experts. The combined efforts of the Hyderabad and the Cyberabad Police to crack the mysterious case of a doctor firing at his partner and later committing suicide, became successful, as the police could establish the sequence of events on the day of incidence.

On February 8, at about 4.30 pm, Dr Shashi Kumar, one of the partners and Director of Laurel Hospitals opened fire at Dr Uday Kumar in the presence of their partner Dr Sai Kumar, in a parked car on Street Number 6 at Himayathnagar.

The doctors at Apollo Hospital in Hyderguda recovered a pellet from Dr Uday’s left ear after a surgery. But the police could not identify from where the pellet had pierced into Uday’s ear. The police personnel including Central Zone DCP VB Kamalasan Reddy, who had inspected the crime scene, could not find any mark of damage in the car and no other sign of firing was seen.

On the same day, Dr Shashi Kumar, the suspect of firing at his partner, shot himself in his friend’s farmhouse in Moinabad. The police recovered a mobile phone, one .32 mm revolver, four live rounds, one empty shell and another shell containing partly melt lead piece.

When asked about the partly melt lead piece, Clues team Inspector Dr Venkanna said it generally happened when a bullet was of low quality. When the revolver is fired, the lead piece moves forward, but the piece recovered from the scene of incidence shows that the lead had melt due to the heat and only a small piece of it struck Uday Kumar.

“Fortunately, Uday suffered a minor injury. The faulty bullet or improper firing by Shashi Kumar saved his life,” Dr Venkanna opined. He said that in a CC Camera footage recovered from Narayanguda, only Uday and Sai Kumar were seen leaving the car, but Shashi Kumar was not found. However, the teams were verifying more footage, he said.

In the substantial investigation by the Moinabad police, it was found that Dr Shashi Kumar had called his friend Chandrakala first to inform that he was committing suicide and then he rang up his wife Kantha. Moinabad inspector G Srinivas said Dr Shashi Kumar and Chandrakala came to the farmhouse in the latter’s car driven by Chandrakala between 6.30 pm to 7 pm. She was there at the farmhouse for over half an hour.

While leaving the farmhouse, she told the watchman Sankaraiah to arrange food for Shashi Kumar and asked to take care of him. Chandrakala later at around 10.30 pm approached Punjagutta police to inform about the call received from Shashi Kumar and when the police reached the farmhouse,

Shashi Kumar was found dead. Dr Venkanna said the pieces of bullet recovered from both the crime scenes and the gunshot residue (GSR) were sent to Forensic Sciences Laboratory to match them, to ensure that the gun was fired by Dr Shashi Kumar.